Original analysis
Steam Card Set Prices: 13,841-Set Analysis
See Steam trading-card set price percentiles and optimized level baskets from 13,841 steam.tools rows, including where the cheapest sets run out.
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What does a Steam card set cost?
The lowest set in the export was $0.25, but the median was $0.75 and the mean was $2.49. The mean is pulled upward by a small expensive tail, so it is a poor budget estimate. About 63.7% of sets were below $1.
| Statistic | Set price |
|---|---|
| Minimum | $0.25 |
| 25th percentile | $0.52 |
| Median | $0.75 |
| 75th percentile | $1.35 |
| Mean | $2.49 |
| Maximum | $15508.48 |
How fast do the cheapest sets run out?
Only 4 games cost $0.30 or less. At five normal crafts per game, that tier covers only 20 sets—short of the 45 needed for level 25. There were 150 games at $0.38 or less, enough for 750 theoretical crafts on a fresh account before listing depth is considered.
Existing badges exhaust the pool sooner. A game already at badge level three has only two crafts left; a level-five badge has none. The table below therefore describes a fresh account and gives the most favorable manual basket.
| Target from 0 | Sets | Min. games | Card purchases | Optimized total | Average set | Last set tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Level 10 | 10 | 2 | 50 | $2.75 | $0.28 | $0.30 |
| Level 25 | 45 | 9 | 245 | $14.20 | $0.32 | $0.34 |
| Level 50 | 150 | 30 | 810 | $51.15 | $0.34 | $0.36 |
| Level 100 | 550 | 110 | 3,195 | $200.30 | $0.36 | $0.38 |
| Level 150 | 1,200 | 240 | 7,045 | $451.80 | $0.38 | $0.39 |
What the optimized basket shows
Level 25 can be assembled for $14.20 in the model, but it requires about 245 separate card purchases. Level 100 reaches $200.30 and 3,195 purchases across 110 games. Level 150 reaches $451.80 and more than seven thousand purchases.
SteamLevelForge currently quotes approximately $0.30 per set in TF2-key value or $0.38 through PayPal/card. On the same set counts, those rates beat or closely track the optimized fresh-account basket while replacing the individual purchases with one reserved delivery. The dated service comparison shows level 25 side by side, and the cost guide explains how to adapt the result to an existing account.
Limits of the model
- Set Price is the sum represented by the export; it is not a locked quote.
- Buying five sets needs five copies of every card, so shallow listings can raise the total.
- The model starts every normal badge at level zero.
- Steam Wallet value, TF2-key value and withdrawable cash are different forms of value.
- Craft rewards and Market fees are excluded because their value is not known before crafting or selling.